ESPN Moving On From TV Deal With Las Vegas-Based Top Rank Boxing; Boxing’s TV Landscape Changing Bigtime
ADVERTISEMENT
Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
ADVERTISEMENT
By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com Boxing Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — ESPN is ending its eight-year partnership with Las Vegas-based boxing promotion Top Rank when their current deal expires in August, marking another major shift in the sport’s media landscape.
ESPN is moving on from its eight-year media broadcast deal with Top Rank this year.
“We are in dialogue with ESPN and many other parties regarding our media rights,” said Evan Korn, Top Rank PR man said in a statement.
“While we never comment on the specifics of those discussions, we place tremendous value in our existing relationship with ESPN and the industry-defining experience we have together delivered to combat sports fans globally for the past eight years,” Korn said.
The TV boxing landscape is changing.
Top Rank approached Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery about a potential rights deal, but both passed, according to a media report. ESPN has informed Top Rank that if the promotion secures a new broadcast partner, it could exit the agreement early.
Top Rank initially signed with ESPN in 2017, later extending the deal to a seven-year agreement featuring 54 events annually.
At the time, Top Rank averaged a reported 1.5 million viewers per event, but the overall television footprint for boxing has been shrinking.
The move highlights the ongoing changes in boxing’s media rights as the sport faces increased global competition. Showtime terminated its run as a boxing platform in late 2023 after 37 years, while Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) moved its pay-per-view events from Fox Sports to Amazon Prime.
When HBO exited the boxing business in 2018 after 45 years, ESPN stepped in to fill the void, expanding its commitment to the sport by airing Top Rank events on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+. The network also helped stabilize boxing’s pay-per-view landscape in the wake of HBO’s departure.
With ESPN stepping away, the boxing world is waiting to see where Top Rank lands—and whether Saudi Arabia’s influence will reshape the sport even further by absorbing the promotion.
Despite the uncertainty, Top Rank still holds the record for the largest live gate in Las Vegas boxing history. The Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao showdown on May 2, 2015 at MGM Grand generated a record $72.2 million gate, a mark that has yet to be surpassed.
Top Rank is also preparing for one of its biggest fights of the year—Naoya Inoue vs. David Picasso at MGM Grand in Las Vegas on June 14, 2025. Meanwhile, Bob Arum, Top Rank’s founder and one of boxing’s most enduring figures, turns 94 in December, adding further speculation about the company’s long-term future.
While Arum and Top Rank navigates its next move, Endeavor’s TKO Group Holdings—owner of UFC and WWE—is exploring a partnership with Saudi official Turki Alalshikh to launch a new boxing league, per The New York Times.
White, who still owns the dormant Zuffa Boxing, has a business relationship with Alalshikh, partnering on a historic UFC event at The Sphere in Las Vegas in 2024. That partnership extends beyond the U.S. market. UFC and Power Slap both recently held events in Saudi Arabia, a clear sign of White and Alalshikh’s expanding their combat sports business.
“Listen, they control the sport of boxing right now,” White said of his business partner Alalshikh and Riyadh Season.
The UFC boss has been keeping a close eye on Alalshikh’s moves, telling LVSportsBiz.com: “Turki has pulled off things people believed couldn’t be done in the world of boxing. It took that kind of money and power to do it. He has a lot of work ahead of him. I’ll tell you this—he’s got a plan.”
When asked if Alalshikh would get him back into boxing, White smirked and simply said: “Maybe.”
